Why I Homeschool....

Sheesh what a loaded question!! So Kristin here ya go!

Please remember this is based on SPECIFIC situations with a SPECIFIC child and our challenge to educate him to the best of our abilities.

I must begin this post with a few stereotype busters! I want to say that I do NOT think schools are "bad", I do NOT think teachers are "bad", I do not even think the overall theory of mass education is "bad".

Let me go a bit further on that. I grew up planning on becoming a teacher, I loved many of my teachers who to this today I love dearly. I know that most teachers are awesome, dedicated and loving. I believe the pay is way too little, for those educating our future adults! The hours are long and the planning, grading, training etc are endless!

I do think our nation has been harmed by the lack of discipline over the course of the last 50 or so years. I think you can see this largely play a part in the downhill spiral many school districts. With no discipline, how can there be much learning? (Again not a school or teachers fault....) I believe the "testing" that has made way in to the schools has affected the "learning", ironically enough!

So. let me begin! If I were telling you this story in person it goes a little like this:
~Carson has an Oct 3 birthday, missing the cute off date for school by only a few days. (this of course is ironic because had the little stinker came on his due date or even a couple days late he would have started K and the outcome may have been different!)

~Okay so Carson is a first born, type A, personality that was trying to teach himself to read at 3 years old. So spring before what would have been his K4 year he was quite a bit advanced and I began to look for options.

~I called our Public School District and was informed that he would go to a school about 5 minutes from our house. This school has much lower test scores than that of the school about 7 minutes away. Although to get in that school you had to submit a hardship letter and be put on a waiting list. I also asked about the traditional school option. (In our district some schools are called traditional...this allows them a more strict explusion policy and many other techniques to keep the children in these schools that are more academic and with no behavior problems). For some reason you are sent across town to your area traditional school. For our area it put Carson about 35+ minutes away in a very unsafe area of town. He would have had an LEAST 1 1/2 bus ride each way and would have arrived home each day after 5 PM!!

~Needless to say my next calls were to private schools in the area. The average cost for a Christian school here is $5,500 per year plus uniforms, books, fees, field trips, supplies, lunches etc. A friend told me that her totals are right at $7,000 per child (this is directly to the school, not including the uniforms and supplies).

~So we are left with these facts to ponder:
1.) Private school would cost us a minimum of $21,000 a year once all three children were enrolled (plus inflation). Which is hard to justify when that could be a heck of a college fund!

2.)In public school Carson would have been well past K level upon entering. I talked to many teachers who explained that he would either stop loving learning or be disruptive in class due to boredom.

3.)Or you homeschool for about $300, the teacher to child ratio is MUCH lower LOL, you know your child is loved all day, you know your child is being pushed to his boundaries learning wise, the learning style is geared to him and you can filter some of the "ick" that he would learn on that play ground or on that school bus!

So we made the decision to homeschool and have not looked back! I have since heard a mom say that she began homeschooling to give her child the best education but now she homeschools for her childs heart! I think that is am amazing example of making a choice to HS because your child is ahead of his peers or behind his peers or too active and soon realizing that the reasons are SO MUCH GREATER than the academics will ever be! Can I give you examples:

~My children are so close. If Carson was gone for 8+ hours a day and we only saw him for homework, dinner and baths...I cannot imagine how our relationships with him would be altered.
A friend gave birth to her daughter days before her son began K and they have never bonded like they could have had he spent those precious years with her.

~Extracurricular activities are so much easier. I do not see how these children get up for school at 7 am and get home at 4pm do homework for an hour and then get to the ball field by 6PM?? Then they get home at 8PM eat dinner and go to bed??!?

~If you can imagine the joy we feel for a child who comes in off the school bus saying he can read...now quadruple that feeling when it is yourself that teaches him to read! When my son spouted off every plant and animal from Arizonia in detail like a tour guide to granny while on vacation.....I was so proud! I did not have to say where did you hear that? Or, are you sure? I was able to remind him of other things we learned about and then off he went with more information!!

~My children are very "social", which is the all time funniest HS stereotype ever! My children interact with people of all ages all day long. They talk elders and infants and must learn the social respects for both. They are interacting while school children are with 25 other same aged peers sitting in rows being told not to speak to one another!

~My favorite is that my children are self taught learners. Much like in college m children get a choice in the "classes" they take. We create journals and lapbooks on things of interest and we do not have to move on until we are ready. This is one reason colleges want HSers so badly...they have been learning college style their whole life making the transistion to college so much easier!

~And yes, academically my son is well beyond the public school "grade level.

I know several families who pay for private school and then the children get home and have 3-4 hours of homework a night! I tease them that they just did more schoolwork with their child than we did AND they had already paid someone else to do it!! hehe

I do think HS is the best option for our family. I have had total peace about the choice that we have made and I have seen nothing but positive results come from it. I do not think HS is for every family, nor do I think traditional public school is for every family same with private school. More importantly options may be different for each child within a family!!! I think in situations like this you must ask yourself will I ever be sorry......????? So with this I knew the answer to that might be yes if I chose to place him in school. While there are no regrets this way.....

God works in mysterious ways....he knew way back when that a few days difference in Carsons birthday would help lead us to this awesome path for our family! On this journey I have often thought of the poem by Robert Frost ........
The Road Not Taken


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.